Jones Alley
kitten-blogging
It's been a confusing few days. I was sitting in my living room watching television Monday night. The living room adjoins the screened patio area, the only way that the freeloader gets to experience the great outdoors now ever since I cat-proofed it last week to prevent him from going out and roving free and easy.
Anyway, as I was sitting there with the door to the "catio" open and the freeloader snoozing soundly next to me, I noticed a flash of black and grey out there. I looked up to see a black and grey cat slinking along the wall, INSIDE the catio. I saw that the cat seemed larger than my estimate of the kitten, and was at least the size of an adolescent cat four to six months old. I stood up, and the cat freaked out. I walked into the catio, closing the door behind me, because if it got in the house it would have a multitude of hiding places and would be very difficult to find, and there would probably have been a hell of a catfight as the freeloader jumped in to protect his territory. The stranger cat was in complete panic mode by this time, climbing the screens, jumping from ledge to ledge, and running in circles at full speed, tail bushed out and eyes wide in terror. He finally hid behind a large keyboard case that I store on the porch, and I had the opportunity to figure out how he got in there. It turns out that my cat-proofing, which was intended to keep a kitty inside, did not preclude the possibility of a cat coming into the catio. I determined where he had entered, a little floppy spot in my cat-proofing that let him come in but dropped back down to prevent him from leaving, and propped it open with a broom. I then started slowly moving the case away from the wall and the cat flew out of his hiding spot, made a couple of high-speed laps around the catio, finally found the now-open spot he had entered, and wriggled out and ran away as fast as he could.
As I restored the catio to cat-proof and corrected the hidden entrance that the black and grey kitty had used, I pondered what I had seen. This cat was small, but even though it was very dark when I saw the kitten, the cat on my back porch seemed significantly larger than what I was positive I had seen. I eventually decided that I just couldn't be sure one way or the other.
It had been Sunday slightly after midnight when I spotted the kitten for the first time, and after releasing my accidental captive late Monday night, the food that I had left for the kitten had remained untouched, I had not heard any mewing, and had not seen any black and grey cats of any size except for the ones that live with me. I figured that either I had been wrong and incorrectly estimated the size of the kitten and that he was a little bit larger and older than I thought, or that it was a coincidence and the cat on my back porch was a different feline and that the kitten had been run off, died, or had been killed during the time since Sunday morning.
A little while ago, I looked out the kitchen window to check the kibble that I had left out in case the kitten was still around, and to my surprise, there was a very small black and grey kitten sitting dejectedly next to the now-empty bowl of kibble. He is TINY. He can't be any more than eight or ten weeks old, much smaller than I initially estimated, and only a quarter the size of the still-smallish cat that I had inadvertently trapped on the porch. They are exactly the same coloring, the biggest difference is in their sizes. I have no way to know if they are related or if it is coincidence, but I do know that there is a tiny stray kitten hanging around my house, and a larger but probably not full-grown cat that looks an awful lot like him also hanging around.
I opened a can of cubed chicken cat food and put it out by my kitchen window, refilled the kibble and water, and about an hour later the canned food was gone. So, the kitten has a full belly, is alive, and is hanging around for the handouts, all of which means that his trust can be won but it will probably take a good amount of time.
One of these days I'm going to figure out where the sign is that attracts all of these hard-luck kitties. I probably won't take it down, I'd just like to know what in the world it says...
Anyway, as I was sitting there with the door to the "catio" open and the freeloader snoozing soundly next to me, I noticed a flash of black and grey out there. I looked up to see a black and grey cat slinking along the wall, INSIDE the catio. I saw that the cat seemed larger than my estimate of the kitten, and was at least the size of an adolescent cat four to six months old. I stood up, and the cat freaked out. I walked into the catio, closing the door behind me, because if it got in the house it would have a multitude of hiding places and would be very difficult to find, and there would probably have been a hell of a catfight as the freeloader jumped in to protect his territory. The stranger cat was in complete panic mode by this time, climbing the screens, jumping from ledge to ledge, and running in circles at full speed, tail bushed out and eyes wide in terror. He finally hid behind a large keyboard case that I store on the porch, and I had the opportunity to figure out how he got in there. It turns out that my cat-proofing, which was intended to keep a kitty inside, did not preclude the possibility of a cat coming into the catio. I determined where he had entered, a little floppy spot in my cat-proofing that let him come in but dropped back down to prevent him from leaving, and propped it open with a broom. I then started slowly moving the case away from the wall and the cat flew out of his hiding spot, made a couple of high-speed laps around the catio, finally found the now-open spot he had entered, and wriggled out and ran away as fast as he could.
As I restored the catio to cat-proof and corrected the hidden entrance that the black and grey kitty had used, I pondered what I had seen. This cat was small, but even though it was very dark when I saw the kitten, the cat on my back porch seemed significantly larger than what I was positive I had seen. I eventually decided that I just couldn't be sure one way or the other.
It had been Sunday slightly after midnight when I spotted the kitten for the first time, and after releasing my accidental captive late Monday night, the food that I had left for the kitten had remained untouched, I had not heard any mewing, and had not seen any black and grey cats of any size except for the ones that live with me. I figured that either I had been wrong and incorrectly estimated the size of the kitten and that he was a little bit larger and older than I thought, or that it was a coincidence and the cat on my back porch was a different feline and that the kitten had been run off, died, or had been killed during the time since Sunday morning.
A little while ago, I looked out the kitchen window to check the kibble that I had left out in case the kitten was still around, and to my surprise, there was a very small black and grey kitten sitting dejectedly next to the now-empty bowl of kibble. He is TINY. He can't be any more than eight or ten weeks old, much smaller than I initially estimated, and only a quarter the size of the still-smallish cat that I had inadvertently trapped on the porch. They are exactly the same coloring, the biggest difference is in their sizes. I have no way to know if they are related or if it is coincidence, but I do know that there is a tiny stray kitten hanging around my house, and a larger but probably not full-grown cat that looks an awful lot like him also hanging around.
I opened a can of cubed chicken cat food and put it out by my kitchen window, refilled the kibble and water, and about an hour later the canned food was gone. So, the kitten has a full belly, is alive, and is hanging around for the handouts, all of which means that his trust can be won but it will probably take a good amount of time.
One of these days I'm going to figure out where the sign is that attracts all of these hard-luck kitties. I probably won't take it down, I'd just like to know what in the world it says...
posted by Milo Johnson at 2:40 PM
1 Comments:
It's a morphing alien.
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